The present invention relates generally to software and, more specifically, to methods, systems, devices, and software for communicating emotionally-charged content.
Currently, online communication of emotionally-charged content often relies on use of nonstandard punctuation and capitalization, as well as emoticons, face glyphs, and looping animations. These symbols are sent or posted on their own or are arbitrarily added to text. There is no established shorthand way to communicate a feeling directed at a particular subject, such as a person, place, thing, or event. Instead, communication of object-directed feelings is typically imprecise, inconsistent, and transient and thus difficult to retrieve after a certain time period has passed. It is also not coherent with previous or future object-directed emotive communication and is difficult to compare with the user's other object-directed feelings or such feelings of other users.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,752,270, issued to Durand et al., entitled “Linking sounds and emoticons,” filed on Jan. 21, 2004, describes a method and an apparatus for associating sounds with emoticons to generate a message bearing an emoticon and a sound file associated with the emoticon.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,271,902, issued to Mangini et al., entitled “Communication of emotions with data,” filed on Jul. 20, 2006, describes a method and an apparatus for associating a graphic image conveying an emotion with a text comment and displaying the two elements in a manner indicating the association.
US Patent Application No. US20140195619, to Hodjat, entitled “Emotive Text Messaging System,” filed on Jan. 7, 2013, describes a method and an apparatus for associating text with a background color conveying an emotional value.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,918,339, issued to Rubinstein et al., entitled “Associating an indication of user emotional reaction with content items presented by a social networking system,” filed on Mar. 15, 2013, describes a method for associating a content item in a social networking system with an emoji representing the user's emotional reaction.
None of the patents and patent applications cited above provide a method that allows a user to quickly and easily communicate feelings associated with particular subjects that are specified by the user in a systematic manner.
In light of these limitations of means currently employed in emotive communication, there is a clear need for a coherent and easy-to-use communication system for object-directed feelings.